Bill splits I-14 into two West Texas routes

Conaway: Midland-Odessa route would serve more traffic, larger population

By Trevor Hawes thawes@mrt.com

Published
5:56 pm CDT, Sunday, June 24, 2018

Under the already-approved plan known as Ports to Forts, I-14’s western terminus would be at I-10 and U.S. Route 190, near Iraan. US 190 would be converted to I-14 to Brady, and the project would continue eastward.

Under the already-approved plan known as Ports to Forts, I-14’s western terminus would be at I-10 and U.S. Route 190, near Iraan. US 190 would be converted to I-14 to Brady, and the project would continue

Under the already-approved plan known as Ports to Forts, I-14’s western terminus would be at I-10 and U.S. Route 190, near Iraan. US 190 would be converted to I-14 to Brady, and the project would continue eastward.

Under the already-approved plan known as Ports to Forts, I-14’s western terminus would be at I-10 and U.S. Route 190, near Iraan. US 190 would be converted to I-14 to Brady, and the project would continue

Plans for Interstate 14 have been expanded, and the Texas Department of Transportation will have a say in how a portion of the project is executed.

Rep. Brian Babin of Beaumont, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently submitted a bill that would extend I-14 to Mississippi and effectively would bring two brand new interstates to West Texas.

Under the already-approved plan known as Ports to Forts, I-14’s western terminus would be at I-10 and U.S. Route 190, near Iraan. US 190 would be converted to I-14 to Brady, and the project would continue eastward.

The Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance in recent years has lobbied to move the western terminus to the Midland-Odessa area. I-14 would start at West Loop 338 in Odessa and would be in dual-designation with I-20 until it reaches State Highway 158 in Midland, which along with U.S. 87 would be converted to interstate until it meets Brady.

Babin’s plan proposes converting both routes into interstates, with the northern route dubbed I-14 North and the southern route named I-14 South.

Rep. Mike Conaway of Midland cosigned the legislation, even though his own bill filed in January calls for changing the I-14 route to Midland-Odessa. However, the congressman isn’t entirely keen on turning the southern route into an interstate.

“Having it go through a more populated area makes a lot more sense,” he said Wednesday during a press call with Babin. “The leg between Brady and I-10 has some 600 cars per day on it, and that’s not enough traffic to warrant interstate classification, particularly when you have U.S. Highway 87 up from San Angelo to Sterling City on over to Midland, that’s really high traffic.”

The southern route will serve 33,907 people each year, according to 2016 Texas Demographic Center data. The northern route in the Midland-Odessa and San Angelo regions will serve 463,873 people, nearly 430,000 more people than the current designation.

Under Babin’s bill, determining which route should be converted first — if at all — would be up to TxDOT. “TxDOT has a business case to make anytime it builds something,” Conaway said. “I think the business case for Brady to San Angelo to Midland-Odessa is a much better business case for that than Brady to I-10.”

The southern route runs through the district of Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican who is in a tough re-election campaign.

While some portions of I-14 have been designated along existing roadways, funding hasn’t yet been earmarked. “We’re so many years in advance of getting this done,” Conaway said. “Any construction, no matter the cost, doesn’t have the kind of flexibility from General Revenue to underwrite the Highway Trust Fund to make this happen.”

“Let’s take this in bite-size pieces and do the work that you can do moving forward,” the congressman added. “As each opportunity comes to build a leg of it, you go with the resources you have at that point in time. It’s a little premature to set aside those kinds of dollars.”